Jeremiah 5: 1 – 9b

Jeremiah 1 describes the prophet’s call. He is obedient but reluctant. Jeremiah 2 announces judgement on the nation of Judah whose flagship capital is Jerusalem. Jeremiah 3 offers rescue for the city and nation already condemned. Jeremiah 4 pictures the destruction of Jerusalem and the prophet agonizing over what he sees coming.

Jeremiah 5:1-9b employs the language of the courtroom. Jerusalem and the nation of Judah have been indicted and found guilty. The sentence has been served. How and why has this happened? Some Bible translations insert headings at the beginning and inside chapters. One New International Version (NIV) publication at the beginning of Jeremiah 5 reads, “Not One Is Upright.” Verse one of Chapter 5 sends Jeremiah scurrying through the streets of Jerusalem looking for one upright person, one who tells the truth and one who does the right thing. The image of an old man, the prophet, with his beard flying and his robe flowing brings a smile. This image brings to my mind two great men, one from long ago, the other from today. The long-ago man is the Greek philosopher, Diogenes. The today one is the Presbyterian cleric, Eduard Loring.

Picture this. Diogenes, lantern in hand, slips inside the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce looking for one honest person. Ed Loring is searching too. He’s downtown at Central Atlanta Progress. Clutching his Bible he looks for one person who tells the truth. Neither the philosopher nor the clergy finds one. Together, the two tip-toe through City Hall security. High and low they look. In City Hall they find only federal agents looking through files. Leaving this third Atlanta monolith, Ed Loring asks his Greek friend if he found one honest person. Diogenes reports the truth, “No, how about you?” The Presbyterian reports the truth, “Hell, no!”

An early definition of “upright” is “vertical.” And “vertical” takes us to plumb line. The Prophet Amos uses the image plumb line to show how far Israel has wandered from her calling, her raison d’etre. The well-fed “kine” of Bashan (Amos 4:1) refers to the women who order their husbands to bring drinks at cocktail hour. Amos knows the cows of Bashan are the best fed and most carefully groomed in the land. Amos is not joking and he’s not making fun. He is exposing the spoiled and arrogant people of the apostate northern kingdom, Israel, whose demise came in 722 b. c. e., 136 years earlier than the fall of Jerusalem. These women are party with those who “sell the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals.” (Amos 8:11)

The plumb line tells all. In construction, failure to adhere to
its instruction causes the structure to collapse. In covenant, failure to adhere to its instruction causes spiritual collapse. Both Samaria, the capital of northern Israel, and Jerusalem, the capital of southern Judah, collapsed under the weight of their social injustices.

Chapter 5 focuses on Jerusalem’s moral depravity, the charges leveled against her and her unrelenting wanderings. She faces a lawsuit. The searchlight of Yahweh’s scrutiny comes in the form of a court trial, a lawsuit. Jeremiah, strange enough, speaks as a defense attorney in the first six verses. William A. Holladay (Jeremiah, Vol. I, Fortress, 1986) shows Yahweh and Jeremiah talking to each other. Verses 1 and 2 show Yahweh instructing Jeremiah to scour the streets of downtown in order to find one person who acts justly and seeks honesty. At this point Yahweh is saying that this search is taking place so that “I can pardon you. I will forgive this city.”

Holliday sees the first nine verses as a dialogue between Yahweh and Jeremiah. In verses 1 and 2 Yahweh orders the search that could pardon Jerusalem. In verses 3 through 6 Jeremiah tells the results of the search. Verses 7 through 9 record Yahweh’s response.

Note: Whether leadership in Atlanta or California or America believes that the prophets of the Hebrew Bible spoke God’s Word is immaterial. What is pertinent is that quality of life is a universal right for everyone, mandated by God. Universal rejection of the mandate lessons its urgency not a scintilla.

Jim Beaty

Jeremiah 22:16

February 7, 2019

 

 

Marshall Rancifer, Atlanta Street Angel

There are many dedicated people in Atlanta who daily reach out as best they can to the thousands of homeless people who live basically on the streets. Specifically, Marshall goes to the streets of Atlanta almost every night with basic essentials for as many as he can reach. He collects from generous donors articles that he gives to people in great need. The following statement is Marshall Rancifer’s, and I post it thanking him for his courageous reporting. The following words are his:

“Please read this post for clarity about what is truly happening here in Atlanta, and share and share widely! I personaliy don’t understand why the city continually keeps trying to perpetuate the lie that it has adequate warming centers spaces especially when one of their partnering agencies admits that they have to turn people away. The bottom line, the city of Atlanta and Central Atlanta Progress claim that no one is ever turned away, but that is so not true. Ms. Lillian who I knew for five years lost her life on a Sunday morning a few weeks ago because she was turned away from several overflow shelters because the city refused to open any of the large warming centers. So I ended up having to drive her back to her spot by the Georgia Pacific Building. I gave her the only blanket I had left. Unfortunately, she was found dead the next morning, but she was not immediately identified because she did not have ID on her at the time of her death, so it was not until Monday before we could get her identified. Kathryn Marchman (Partners for Home) and George Chidi were quoted in the AJC and on George’s Facebook page saying that the city and none of its partnering agencies ever turn unsheltered folks away which is totally untrue. But Rachel Reynolds, communication manager with MY SISTER’S HOUSE, is quoted in an AJC article saying the shelters sometimes must turn people away. “Demand is high,” Reynolds said, “We are always, 365 days a year, at 95 to 100 percent capacity, so when the cold weather comes around, we don’t always have the open beds.” And on this past Sunday Darryll Starks and myself drove a 19 year old girl and her 5 month old infant son to MY SISTER’S HOUSE, CITY OF REFUGE, the DONNA CENTER, the city’s CENTRAL PARK CENTER and the ADAMSVILLE REC CENTER. They all turned us away. Preston with the mayor’s office made some calls, helped us get the girl and her baby into Trinity Methodist Church shelter. But upon arrival at Trinity, there were six women outside the door who had been standing there for two hours because Trinity was refusing to let them in because the temperature had not dropped below 40 degrees. Atlanta is no longer the city too busy to hate, a city that lacks empathy and compassion, is a city with no love.

In order to make donations contact Marshall on his Facebook Page.

Jim Beaty
Jeremiah 22:16
February 6, 2019

Passersby

July 7, 2017

Richard Robbins, Manny Fialkow’s Lawyer, Quits

How are things in the TEAM GOLIATH conspiracy? What’s cooking at the City of Atlanta’a Department of Watershed Management? How’s TEAM GOLIATH’s New Orleans extension operating? I stated a few essays ago that City Hall and United Way of Atlanta had paid a crack team of social workers from the French Quarter or somewhere to come to Atlanta to be here for the turning off of the water at the Peachtree Pine facility. They were in Atlanta to “transition” the residents at the Pine to United Way’s safe havens that do not exist. TEAM GOLIATH’s ploy to shut off the water in order to close the shelter was foiled once again for the three hundreth time. The crack team from New Orleans, an extension of TEAM GOLIATH, went back to the Big Easy the day after Team David’s Task Force paid the $581,000 plus water bill. But at least one member of the team resurfaced at Peachtree-Pine several days ago, positioning for another tactic.

What does TEAM GOLIATH do next? Will Czar Debi Starnes rise to the surface of the cesspool with another lice infestation? Will Horace Sibley find his computer somewhere over at Georgia Tech? Will crack CDC detect rats over on Ponce de Leon that came from Peachtree Pine? Will Central Atlanta Progress find an EBOLA outbreak in Miami that started with a homeless someone? I doubt it. Starns and CDC and CAP have a few more things to think about these days. The fabricated existence of lice and flea infestations and locust attacks at the Pine have turned into lawsuits and court cases and losing appeals. Remember Joe Beaslesy’s, “It’s time somebody went to jail!”

The latest blip on TEAM GOLIATH’s screen occurred today when Manny Fialkow’s lawyer moved to withdraw from representing Premium Funding Solutions, Inc. Of course, Exhibit 20 that I posted recently has Manny Fialkow stating under oath that he is in no way shape or form connected to Premium Funding Solutions, Inc. Manny Fialkow is the conspirator in TEAM GOLIATH who paid the Mercy Housing nuns $780,000 for the mortgage notes on the Peachtree-Pine building on Peachree Street in Atlanta. AJ Robinson wrote that Manny deserved a discount on what he was paying the nuns since Manny was the chosen one to put them into default and then “kick them out.” Evidence has Emory Health Care, Inc. in the background in case it needed to pick up any shortage in dollars for Fialkow.

It is interesting that legal representation for Fialkow, Attorney Richard Robbins, attempted today to withdraw from the case. This should be no problem for Manny Fialkow as he has had a number of lawyers to withdraw from this case. And only God knows how many other lawyers may be defending him in other lawsuits. He’ll find another lawyer; he better. Stay tuned.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22:16
October 7, 2014

Exhibit 19 Tab 19 AJ’s Premature Celebration

Exhibit 19 Tab 19 was filed in Judge Craig Schwall’s Superior Court of Fulton County on July 11, 2014. The Plaintiff is the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, Inc. and the defendants are Premium Funding Solutions, Inc., Central Atlanta Progress and Atlanta Downtown Improvement District. This case arises from a well-documented conspiracy by powerful downtown entities whose purpose among many things was to shut down the Atlanta Task Force and to take the 96,000 square foot building at 477 Peachtree Street in Atlanta. Baker Donelson Attorneys Steve Hall and Bob Brazier represent the plaintiffs. A myriad of attorneys represent Premium Funding Solutions and Atlanta Downtown Improvement District. Troutman Sanders represents Central Atlanta Progress. Three of their attorneys appear in this Exhibit 19; there are 27 other exhibits. Emory University and Emory Health Care, Inc. are defendants in a similar lawsuit in the Superior Court of Dekalb County. Attorney Mark Murray represents the Task Force’s lawsuit against Emory.

The following e-mail is sent from AJ Robinson, President of CAP, to Attorneys Steve Riddell, Robert D. Fortson and William W. Burton at Troutman Sanders on January 28, 2010. By January 2015, five (5) years will have passed. The Peachtree Pine property was stolen almost five (5) years ago, but the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, Inc. thrives and occupies the building with homeless people residing there 365 days of the year. AJ Robinson’s celebratory ejaculation happened four (4) years, nine (9) months ago. He wrote the following:

From: AJ Robinson
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 2:15 PM
To: Steve W. Riddell, Robert D. Fortson, William W. Burton
Subject:

Just a note to inform you that Manny now owns the loan on the Pine Street shelter, plan is to begin on advertising for foreclosure tomorrow and foreclose on March 1st or 2nd. Of course loan could be paid off between now and then. We are developing a plan with Manny, United Way, Gateway for post foreclosure.
Aj Robinson.

Note: The foreclosure happened. The plans didn’t. United Way has been planning for decades; however, those women and children who so desperately long for their help seldom if ever find it. Gateway has been closed to women and children for eons.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22:16
October 2, 2014

Exhib 18 Tab 18 Dane Peterson: “…and have Emory pick up the tab for the difference to the full amount.”

Baker Donelson Attorneys Steve Hall and Bob Brazier on July 11, 2014, filed Exhibit 18 along with 27 other exhibits in Judge Craig Schwall’s Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia. All these exhibits bring evidence in a lawsuit pitting The Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, Inc. against Premium Funding Solutions, Inc., Central Atlanta Progress and Atlanta Downtown Improvement District. These defendants are accused among other things of racketeering, tortious interference, seizing property fraudulently, bribery, and defamation. How ironic that on this 18th day of September 2014, Task Force attorneys learned this a.m. that the City of Atlanta is scheduled to shut-off water at the Peachtree-Pine facility that presently houses some 400 man and 90 women and children.

Some of the members of TEAM GOLIATH who want these redundant men, women and children out of sight and out of mind are the City of Atlanta, Central Atlanta Progress, Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, Cousins Properties, Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Atlanta United Way, Rocktenn, Inc., Emory Health Care, Inc. and Emory University. Any person remotely familiar with downtown Atlanta’s inveterate flow of corruption expects behavior that disappears homeless people and shuts off drinking and bathing water to women and their babies. For half a century Central Atlanta Progress leadership has disappeared redundant people from their purview. The Chamber of Commerce across the land is synonymous with exclusivity and selective enforcement. The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce had a hand in the recent Atlanta Public Schools’ cheating scandal. Heads have rolled and will continue to roll. Five‘ll get you ten that no more heads from CAP or the Chamber will roll. A.J. Robinson’s pal “Sammy” Williams left the scene of the crime soon after the scandal broke.

Chicanery and deceit occur as business as usual at CAP and City Hall. But snow white Emory? The nun-run Mercy Housing? These doers of all good, Emory Health Care, Inc.? Emory University? Stainless steel Cousins Properties who employs caddies and turns potential waste dumps into championship golf courses for the rich? No way! Exhibit 18 proves that these untainted members of the TEAM GOLIATH conspiracy employ the soiled Manny Fialkow and CAP to do their dirty when it comes to putting “them into foreclosure” and “kicking them out” of their property.
Exhibit 18 names Central Atlanta Progress, Cousins Properties, Inc., Emory Health Care, Inc. and ROCKTENN, Inc. Manny Fialkow smells the green as he volunteers to put them into foreclosure and to kick them out of the building that he is helping to steal.

The three e-mails are quoted in the order that they were sent:
From: AJ Robinson
Sent: Monday, November 30, 2009 6:56 PM
To: jokidd@rocktenn.com; craigJonescousinsproperties.com; Peterson, Dane

Wardlaw paid approximately 50k for 90 day forbearance . . . more later.

From: Dane Peterson
Sent: Sun 12/13/2009 6/31 6:31 PM
To: AJ Robinson
Subject: PE:
Sorry for not catching you by phone. Quick question – is there any value in figuring out how to buy the note with Manny? The idea would be to let Manny get the discount from Mercy / ICE at $800 or so, and have Emory pick up the tab for the difference to the full amount. What John (Head of Emory Health Care, John Fox) was thinking is that Mercy / ICE would be more likely to sell the note if they didn’t have to sell it at a “discount.”
Does this make sense? Probably haven’t figured out all the issues, but this was the reason for my call last week.

Dane

From: AJ Robinson
To: Dane Peterson
Sent: 12/14/2009
RE:

Perhaps possible, Manny could buy at par as well but he rightfully feels like there should be some discount if he was the one to foreclose and kick them out. The issue now which we have not yet confirmed is that Mercy may have agreed with the borrower to not sell to anyone during their next 90 days, or even if they haven’t legally agreed perhaps they told the borrower such. We are trying to get an answer to this question. Stay tuned.

Note: Exposure reaches a new height and a new depth in this Exhibit 18. ROCKTENN is owned by former Emory University Board of Trustees member, Brad Curry. This is the Curry who went along with AJ’s van load of folks to visit Dan Cathy at the Chic-fil-a headquarters. Brad Curry is no part-time English professor or some other low life shuffling around the Emory campus. He’s up there high in the Emory power structure. Brad Curry brings power and influence, Emory muscle to the conspiracy. Dane Peterson mentions “John’s thinking.” And who is John? He’s head of Emory Health Care, Inc. Then Craig Jones of Stainless Steel Cousins Properties is deep in the mix. And Dane “DRIVING MISS DAISY” Peterson parrots John Fox’s suggestion to give Manny Fialkow a discount. And AJ Robinson adds for good measure that Manny deserves a discount since he’s the one putting “them” into foreclosure and then kicking them out. Dane Peterson is the CEO of Emory Hospital downtown, located almost directly across from Peachtree Pine on hallowed Peachtree Street.
Years ago Carl Hartrampf, Anita Beaty and eight men from Peachtree Pine met with Dane Petersen in our conference room. He had called. He then walked across Peachtree Street. While exchanging pleasantries, Dane Peterson, the head of the Emory Hospital said he loved Atlanta so much because as a newcomer to Atlanta he’s reminded often of DRIVING MISS DAISY. What did Dane mean? Is Atlanta nice to drivers and caddies?
The Emory Proton Therapy Center is being built right now on North Avenue some six blocks north of our 96,000 square-foot building. Our building would have been more convenient for Emory.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22:16
October 2,2014

Millions of people throughout the social and local media have learned that the City of Atlanta refused to accept a $100,000.00 check in partial payment of an outstanding water bill at a facility for homeless people. A few days later the $582,383.53 bill was paid in full by the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, Inc. averting the water being shut off. The City’s devious plan was apparently foolproof and certainly extensive. Refusing the $100,000.00 proved TEAM GOLIATH did not want the money. They wanted those redundant people out of that building and away from downtown Atlanta. By law a water bill paid in full must be received. TEAM GOLIATH had no choice but to take the money. One of the City’s more disgruntled attorneys muttered something like they were so glad the Task Force was able to pay the bill. In truth, paying the bill is the last thing that person wanted. She and her coterie wanted the water turned off.

Had the City shut off the water at the Peachtree-Pine facility, her officials would have called Fulton County officials. And of course, for health reasons the County health folks for the good health of the people would remove them from UNHEALTHY Peachtree Pine. Those Atlanta citizens numbering children, their mothers and 400 men have nowhere to go; nevertheless, go they will if TEAM GOLIATH has a say.

The City of Atlanta through the auspices of United Way of Atlanta employed a fortnight or so ago a Crisis Team to come from New Orleans to Atlanta for the purpose of “TRANSITIONING” ALL the people out of and away from the Peachtree Pine Community. People were actually paid by United Way dollars and/or Atlanta tax payer dollars to come to Atlanta to be ready for the shutting off of the water. The Crisis Team was in the City for an undesignated period of time. They returned home the day after the half-million-dollar payment was made. City “officials” scheduled a meeting for Monday, September 29, 2014, away from City Hall, set for 1 pm with Task Force staff. The purpose of that meeting was to plan the placing of the 100 women with their children. That 1 pm meeting was cancelled by City Hall.

The need to “transition” women and children suddenly disappears as far as the United Way TEAM GOLIATH movers and shakers are concerned. TEAM GOLIATH stumbles regularly. More often than not, however, the monster, like all evil, rises soon to create more angst. Atlanta has a marvelous opportunity to be a City, a Jeremiah’s City, an Isaiah’s city, that City on a hill that spreads light, joy and hope.

Please pray that LEADERSHIP, real leadership that focuses on suffering men, women and children will come miraculously our way. And on the way to that utopia could we have some potholes filled and person-hole covers leveled. Where is the Great Shirley Franklin’s Pothole Posse when we need it. We have a $100,000,000.00 Streetcar Named Disaster and a thousand streets whose surfaces are an embarrassment. Isaiah 60:17b speaks of a rotten Jerusalem whose governors would be righteousness and whose rulers would be justice. Atlanta, no less guilty than a fallen Jerusalem, can change direction. Mark it well that it does not have to be this way. There exist two possibilities for relief for Atlanta: one, that the present regime do a moral about-face: or, two, that the present regime be extracted from below and beyond its deepest abscess. I fear that the latter has a greater chance of coming to pass than the former.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22:16
October 1, 2014

A City of Atlanta attorney and the City’s Commissioner of Watershed Management met this morning, September 18, 2014, with the Task Force’s attorney S. Hall, Task Force Board Member Carl Hartrampf and Task Force Director Anita Beaty. The Commissioner informed the Task Force that the water at the Peachtree-Pine Facility is scheduled to be shut off on Monday, September 22. Only a payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the City’s water department by Friday afternoon can avert the shut-off of water at the emergency facility where last night 432 people resided. Of this total 432 people, 42 are women and 28 are children. Let me ask you to do one thing or three of three things that will help you. One, go to the Task Force website, http://www.atlantataskforceforthehomeless.org and send a donation of money. If you earmark your donation for “water” we will get it to the City of Atlanta Water Department. Two, bring all the bottled water you can gather to 477 Peachtree Street (Pine Street door). Three, pray for the soul of a City of Atlanta that can wrongfully cut funds and then turn around and shut-off water keeping homeless women and their children from water, a basic necessity of life.

Whatever your political persuasion, TEAM GOLIATH conspirator or a sensitive human being, surely you see the cruelty of a shut-off of water to people who have no place to go. The Task Force Attorney Steve Hall inquired about the hundreds of huge debtors to the City for back water bills. Mr. Hall didn’t mention any businesses but he could have. An AJC reporter said recently that the Water Department has “forgiven” many water bills far in excess of what the City claims is owed by Peachtree Pine. The city attorney told Mr. Hall that ONLY the Task Force’s bill would be discussed. Where is Mayor Reed in all this? Could the Superior Court of Fulton County be in all this? Is United Way offering dollars per head to struggling churches for the people they will take in when the county or the court or gog or magog close Peachtree Pine?

Micah 2:1-2, if I may quote Emanuel “God with us” Fialkow’s middle name: “Woe to those who scheme iniquity, who work out evil on their beds! When morning comes, they do it, For it is in the power of their hands. They covet fields and then seize them, and houses and take them away. They rob a man and his house, A man and his inheritance.” I beg you for water.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22:16
September 18, 2014

Exhibit 17, Tab 17, is one of 28 exhibits filed as evidence in Judge Craig Schwall’s Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, on July 11, 2014. The lawsuit pits the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, Inc. against Premium Funding Solutions, Inc. (Manny “Micah 2:1-2” Fialkow), Central Atlanta Progress and Atlanta Downtown Improvement District. The three defendants are charged among other things with racketeering, tortious interference, defamation, bribery and fraudulently seizing property. Emory University and Emory Health Care face the same and other charges in the Superior Court of Dekalb County, Georgia. In this brief Exhibit 17, Craig Jones of Cousins Properties exudes glee over the pliancy of the usually constipated Manny “Micah 2:1-2” Fialkow. Craig Jones’ ejaculation is sent by e-mail to Manny’s familiar, A. J. Robinson, president of Central Atlanta Progress. The “Boss” as Richard Orr likes to call him, responds to the Cousins Properties’ man showing what he knows of the sometimes pliable, sometimes not, Emanuel “ Micah 2:1-2” Fialkow. Their exchanges are quoted below: From: Craig Jones To: AJ Robinson Sent: Wed May 20, 2009 Subject: Fw: 477 Peachtree Pine This “gent” is way down the road on this. You’ve got him pretty lathered up. We really need to see what Emory is willing to do, although being realistic, they probably won’t move fast enough… Sent from my Blackberry Wireless Handheld From: AJ Robinson To: ‘craigjones@cousinsproperties.com Subject: Re: 477 Peachtree Agreed, but he just smells a deal and will flip to Emory if we want. . . . . . . . also he tops out at about 2 million so we need some back up. Sent from my Blackberry Wireless Handheld Note: From this Exhibit 17 through Exhibit 28 the plot thickens with Emory officials chumming with Manny “Micah 2:1-2” Fialkow and A. J. Robinson. Cousins Properties’ Craig Jones delights in Fialkow’s being “lathered up” by A. J. Robinson. Cousins Properties wants to develop 477 Peachtree. And snow white developers like Cousins Properties and pristine Health Care Providers like Emory Health Care, Inc. need “informal” dealers like Fialkow to “put them in default” and then “Kick them out” of the property. What a mix! What a conglomerate. Nuns posing as housing providers are joined at the hip with conspirators who all stand to gain on the backs of poor people and also on the back of an organization that has, though crippled by these very attackers, served them unflaggingly.       James Wilson Beaty Jeremiah 22:16 September 17, 2014.